After 17 months, the lost surfboard will be returned to its owner. Photos: Bueno//Instagram
A surfboard lost from a boat off Tasmania nearly two years ago will be reunited with its owner in New Zealand, over 1,000 miles away.
According to ABC, the surfboard was lost off the southern coast of Tasmania in May, 2024. The surfboard fell off a boat in its bag and was given up for lost. The plucky little surfboard, though, went on a journey of epic proportions, bobbing around the Tasman Sea, enduring the infamous Roaring Forties for 17 months before finally winding up off New Zealand where a kite surfer near Raglan spotted it. Albarito Bueno aimed himself towards the lost board, collected it, brought it to shore, and decided he’d have a crack at finding the owner.
“Seems like the board has been drifting quite a bit and it’s not too damaged,” he posted online. “Wondered if the board could have drifted from east Australia?”
As with many good mysteries, the internet caught wind of the reunion attempt and collectively decided to help Bueno find the owner. The attempts worked.
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“I just had a call with the owner of the board, Liam, a charger from Tasmania, Australia,” he wrote in an update. “The board was lost on a boat trip on the south coast of Tasmania on 10th of May 2024!!!!!! The board drifted for 17 months and ended up in Raglan, where I found it.”
The surfboard’s owner, who has only been identified as Liam, is heading to Auckland, New Zealand for a wedding in the coming months, so he and Bueno will link up to get the board back in his hands.
“This board may have accumulated more ocean time and wisdom than all of us,” wrote Josh Farleigh, the shaper. “It has journeyed from the south coast of Tasmania where it fell off a boat in a board bag with a leggy on and drifted to Raglan in New Zealand over the last year and a half, traveling thousands of kilometers. Imagine the storms and sea life it’s seen! It’s now working out its next leg of the journey home to its rightful owner in Tassie. What a mission.”
This isn’t the first time a surfer has lost a surfboard and found it far away months later. In 2018, Doug Falter, a supremely talented photographer, lost his cherished gun at Waimea, a prized Lyle Carlson 10’6” shaped for big waves. Two years later, in 2020, it was found by a fisherman in the Philippines. It was then sold to the fisherman’s neighbor, a teacher named Giovanne Branzuela, who brought it to class to show his students. Lyle’s logo was still readable, so Branzuela emailed Lyle and they alerted Falter that his surfboard was all done with its walkabout.
